Day 293 - A Ransom

Daily Reading:  Matthew 20-22

Jesus tells the parable of the Workers Paid Equally

Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?  Or are you envious because I am generous?  20:15

Footnote:  This parable is not about rewards but about salvation.  It is a strong teaching about grace, God's generosity.  We shouldn't begrudge those who turn to God in the last moments of life, because,  in reality, no one deserves eternal life.

Many people we don't expect to see in the kingdom will be there.  The criminal who repented as he was dying (Luke 23:40) will be there along with people who have believed and served God for many years.  Do you resent God's gracious acceptance of the despised, the outcast, and the sinners who have turned to him for forgiveness?  Are you ever jealous of what God has given to another  person?  Instead, focus on God's gracious benefits to you and be thankful for what you have.

Just as the son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  20:28

Footnote:  A ransom was the price paid to release a slave from bondage.  Jesus often told his disciples that he must die, but here he told them why -- to redeem all people from the bondage of sin and death.  The disciples thought that as long as Jesus was alive, he could save them.  But Jesus revealed that only his death would save them and the world.

Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it:  'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."  22:37-40

Footnote:  The Pharisees, who had classified over 600 laws, often tried to distinguish the more important from the less important.  So one of them, an "expert in the law," asked Jesus to identify the most important law.  Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.  By fulfilling these two commands, a person keeps all the others.  They summarize the Ten Commandments and the other Old Testament moral laws.

 Keep reading -- 72 days left!

All footnotes taken from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV